Month: December 2003

Sometimes, things don’t turn out quite like you expect. Like with Dive Turkey IV: there were some hiccups – like Laura’s regulator falling apart because of bad service by Oceanic Ventures in Houston. I don’t recommend them for servicing your regulator. Luckilly, the Mares representative for all of Latin America is in Cozumel and was able to help reassemble the regulator for a small fee. And he gave us a piece of his mind about some US dive shop servicing practices. It gave me quite a scare – this is her LIFE we’re talking about. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind to not continue the dive when she felt something had gone wrong. Once on the surface, the pieces fell out. Not good. Next day, though, she was back in the water with much more confidence and a properly functioning regulator. I will use a real authorized dealer/repair center next time: not one that claims it is when it is not. Not only will I never go back to them for service, I will never purchase another item from them. Ever. There is no excuse for such poor quality control. Not only did they mess up the first stage of the regulator, they incorrectly serviced both second stages, moved the hoses to a different configuration and didn’t tighten them all the way. I was most upset to find on receiving my regulator back that the computer was loose! They of course overcharged me – I could have bought a new regulator for what it cost to get it serviced.

Well, Dive Turkey IV has completed: a success! We enjoyed a week’s worth of diving (myself, I had 17 dives I think…) but not a strenuous schedule. We had plenty of time to enjoy the local cuisine and beverages. Habaneros are yummy! If you don’t know what a habanero pepper is, DON’T EAT IT! – it’s the world’s hottest pepper. I rather like them… in moderation, of course!

The weather was wonderful, except there were a few issues at the begining (including Laura’s regulator incident – I’ll talk about that later). The day we got there, we all wanted to do a check-out dive. It was a bit windy and the waves were up, so it was looking rather dificult. Laura decided she wasn’t up to it so she sat this one out. The rest of us insane people went ahead with the dive.

By the time we got into the water, it was dark. The current, it turned out, was really bad, too. So: dark, windy, lots of waves and current… hmm… didn’t stay in very long. I think I had a max depth of 11 feet for 7 minutes. One of my shortest dives ever.

The next day, the weather got better but was still choppy. [this is where Laura had her regulator incident.] Second dive day was finally calm. It stayed this way for the duration of the trip. We went to reefs I’ve never been to and had a wonderful night dive.